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Junk cars
Background Most ordinances define a "junk" car as a vehicle without license plates and/or without a valid inspection sticker. A rusty old heap can sit in your yard forever as long as you pay $100 or so a year to keep the plates and inspection current. The 2002 SUV that is parked this year because of high fuel costs and to save money on plates and insurance by taking it off the road altogether, can be fined, forced into a storage unit, or junked. Complaintants have legitimate complaints about old autos. :A complaint is legitimate not so much for property values, as it is eminaent domain. Ordinances allow local planning and developement agencies to embed itself deeper and deeper into a nieghborhood. What is blight? Grass over a foot high? Paint peeling off a structure? A broken window? An unregistered car sitting in the yard? Solutions Propose a neighborhood association: voluntary, without expensive legislation, and accomplishes the same goals. One bad structure can get the whole nieghborhood leveled and replaced with a Walmart. Niether party in this situation may be aware of this, and mentioning it to both, could help ease tensions between them, and lead to a mutualy agreeable solution. After mentioning it say "And if I'm elected as your U.S Senator I will fight tooth and nail for your property rights, and against any attempt by gov't to take your property and give it to a shopping mall. This really is a beautiful nighborhood. I hope I can count on your vote." * Many residents in my township want to put teeth into an anti junk car ordinance. * Right now there is a one time $25 fine for having a junk car in your yard. Local magistrates wont bother with it cause it is so small it is a wast of time -- so they want $25 or much more per day. FYI: Assume These cars are in side yards - back yards - front yards - in driveways, they are indisputidly in the yards of the people who own them. None on the street. -- No street sweeping in my town (we have 1,300 people in 26 square miles ) I would say a more teeth to the ordinance makes sense if it's in front of someone else's property but that ordinance will also bother people who have their cars in their own drive way's or out front of their own houses. As long as the car is moved for services like community street cleaning and all of that even a one time fine of 25 dollars seems like it's just the government minding someone else's business Well John I appericiate the thoughts: Some more details:: typically two fold A) the neighbors are not talking to each other - just about each other -- so there is a lot of run to the officials to put the other guy in pain. B) There are complaints of ruining aesthetiscs - their crap makes my place look bad - and I want them to cut the grass too! (Ahh, what else will emerge when that happens?) c) this is in the 'town' - say 80 to 100 soles total - Every one in the town knows everything about every one else (or they simply make it up - that's ok too) the rest of the people in the township - live scattered in the hinderlands and barely know or care what the townies are up to. That is untill it's is too late. Many people are retired and on fixed income - so a $50/day fine could really hurt withen a week. The supervisors have been foot dragging for months on this issue - but each month the heat is rising so the township solicitor is drafting a new ordinance for review at next months meeting. Are you a principled or success-oriented libertarian? A principled libertarian might exhort the virtues of property rights. Neither a neighbor or the local government cannot tell a person what to do on or with their property. Have the neighbors discussed the issue to find a mutually agreeable conclusion? Perhaps its simply a case of paying a few dollars (FRNs if you like) to get the car to a junk yard. If the complainant says he's losing thousands in property value, then a hundred bucks sounds like a bargain. Does the complainant have significant aesthetic issues with his property to which others might object? Would the complainant appreciate the local government demanding that he address those unsightly blemishes? A success-oriented libertarian might moderate that position in some way to appear more appealing to the average voter. The candidate might acknowledge the junk car as a problem but traverse into a more important problem. Is there some impeding regulations that hinder the disposition of the junker? Is the neighbor a business person (or wanna be) who cannot acquire an affordable business location because of local zoning or business laws? Is the neighbor in financial trouble because of local economic conditions likely exacerbated by local or county politics? Everybody wants the government to provide them with welfare of any sorts, and apparently better-valued homes and aesthetic neighbors are included. I'm greatly saddened by the irresponsibility and depravity of many people. I wonder if there's any hope for a civil, free society.